


Five Things

by rubycrowned



Category: 1D - Fandom, One Direction, One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, ziam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-07
Updated: 2012-10-07
Packaged: 2017-11-15 19:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubycrowned/pseuds/rubycrowned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>and why is it that Zayn can hate so much about Liam but never hate <em>him</em>?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Things

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this was actually written a couple months ago - it was to be a birthday present FOR MY BABE CAT (LOVE YOU SWEETIE) but that sort of went pear-shaped and she only got it today, which is why it's only getting posted /now/ since she's had time to read it. it's ziam and its not quite fluff but its not quite angst but i hope you like it

Zayn’s opens his door to find Liam, wet and bedraggled on his doorstep, staring at him with eyes brimming with emotions Zayn doesn’t think he could name anymore.

“What do you want?”

***

Five things Zayn Malik loves about Liam Payne:

His eyes. The way they’re warm and comforting and always screaming everything Liam can and sometimes can’t say, even though often Zayn feels like he’s the only one that sees it. And maybe people have said that eyes are the windows to the soul, but Zayn wonders if maybe Liam’s eyes are the windows to _his_ soul. Because he seems to lose himself in those orbs, stretching deep towards infinity (and beyond). Because it’s through Liam’s eyes that Zayn thinks he might actually see someone who he likes, who is worth loving.

Liam’s laugh. The way it transforms his entire face; crinkling those eyes and tugging at the angles of his face. The way it catches him off guard some times, a little surprised that, yes, that noise came from him. Or the way that sometimes it’s just a really good chuckle at his own stupid joke that no one else finds funny (not even Zayn who’s lips will tweak in amusement while his eyes roll on reflex and his arm tugs Liam into his side). The way it can lighten the room, or brighten Zayn’s entire day.

The heart which seems to be two sizes bigger than most. Which doesn’t attach itself to anyone and everyone immediately and without reservation (that’s Niall), but which – when Liam decides he does care for you – can’t be removed from your own without taking pieces of your own with it. And Zayn will be damned if that feeling of being loved by Liam – the moment you see that it’s you he has trusted with his heart – isn’t the feeling he would wait his life for.

His body. The planes and angles and muscles. The curve from ear down to shoulder. So maybe it was superficial, but god, the things Liam’s body did to Zayn; that Liam did with his body to Zayn.

The weight of Liam’s head against his chest, curly hair (because the best memories are always when Liam’s hair is just the slightest bit unruly, at odds with the rest of his public demeanour) knotted between Zayn’s fingers while Liam snuffles quietly in his sleep. He smells like boy and sex and mint, and Zayn can feel their skin pressed together at multiple points down the length of their bodies, until Zayn has a tough time distinguishing where he ends and Liam begins. Liam exudes warmth and, with blankets pulled over them, it is getting uncomfortably warm; Zayn knows he will have to disentangle them soon, scoot out from under the solid body to the other side of the bed. And that’s fine; it’s not like they cuddle like that – that’s not what this is – it’s just the way they rolled together in the night, is all. But Zayn will put off the moment for just a couple minutes longer.

***

Five things Zayn Malik hates about Liam Payne:

His inability to be himself, to decide who it is he wants to be and stick with it. To realise that maybe everything isn’t black and white and sometimes you can’t help who you love and that’s _okay_. To not give a flying fuck what everyone else thinks; to be selfish for once in his goddamn life.

The way Liam refuses to fight. The way he says everything in a look and the quiet click of a door closing behind him. In the empty bed in the morning. Sometimes Zayn wishes that they were more like Louis and Harry; they combust and burn and hurt, but at least they _care_. Liam won’t fight against Zayn about it; about anything. And, no matter which side Liam wants in the end, Zayn wishes he would just fight _for_ it.

Danielle.

The way that Liam will never choose Zayn.

The way that Zayn can never seem to stop choosing Liam anyway.

***

Zayn’s opens his door to find Liam, on his doorstep, for the first time in months and why is it that Zayn can hate so much about Liam but never hate _him_?

“What do you want?”

It’s tired, worn out. Zayn has been doing this too long and he’s just so _exhausted_.

“You. Always you.”

“Please. Stop. Fuck off, Li. You have-”

And Liam looks like he’s gone nine rounds with the devil; looks sodden and a little bit broken, but his smile when he cuts off Zayn is like the sun has come out after a storm and it’s blinding. Erases everything to here and now and _fuck it_. Zayn could never say no before; why did he think things would change now?

“Only you, Zayn.”

***

***

It’s a Sunday afternoon and they’re sprawled over the sofa, Zayn draped over Liam as they doze and watch some trashy MTV marathon which Zayn is barely paying attention to as he draws patterns on Liam’s arm.

An ad break comes on, or the show finishes – something –  and Zayn slowly pushes himself up to hands and knees, pressing a kiss to Liam’s forehead and quirking an eyebrow to ask “Tea?” before getting off the couch entirely and padding off towards the kitchen.

He can hear music coming from the lounge; just muffled enough by the walls that he can’t quite tell what music video is playing until he wanders back in with two steaming mugs.

“We are NEVER EVER _EVER_ , getting back together,” Liam sing-songs at him as Zayn re-enters the room. If Zayn wasn’t such a sucker for the boy, didn’t find his bopping along to Taylor Swift’s new song ridiculously endearing, then he’d be rolling his eyes at it (he may do that anyway).

Zayn places their tea on the coffee table, digging a couple of coasters from underneath miscellaneous crap littering it – then climbing back onto the sofa, where Liam is now upright, and straddling him, widening his eyes and pouting his lips in mock dejection.

“What? I _thought you loved me, Li!_ ” Zayn might get overly dramatic, shaking Liam’s shoulders a little in emphasis and wondering idly if he was slowly turning into Louis. But Liam gets it, rolling his own eyes at Zayn before hitching his hands around Zayn’s thighs and flipping them sideways, lying Zayn back until all Zayn can see is Liam’s smile and his beaming eyes and the ever-so-slightly out of control locks of hair falling in a frame around his face.

“It’s okay, babe.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Liam’s breath is a warm tickle against Zayn’s neck as he trails butterfly kisses along the line of Zayn’s jaw, “’Cause I never intend on letting you go in the first place.”

“Oh. Well I suppose that’s alright then.”

Zayn barely manages a smirk before Liam’s lips are on his.

At some point, while the tea goes cold and MTV continues playing in the background, Zayn finds just enough time to think that this is a _much_ more productive way to spend a Sunday.

***

**Author's Note:**

> ok so firstly - to c/p what i said to cat when i wrote this:
> 
> FIRSTLY, HOPE YOU’RE NOT CRYING…THAT’S ALWAYS A GOOD START
> 
> OH AND JUST TO KICK YOU IN THE GUTS A LITTLE – THAT LAST FLUFFY SECTION? THE ONE THAT FEELS A LITTLE DISJOINTED AND WAS MOSTLY ME TRYING NOT TO DESTROY YOU BECAUSE CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF I’M NOT /ACTUALLY/ THE DEVIL? YEAH WELL I’M NOT ENTIRELY SURE BUT IT COULD BE THE PERFECT FLUFFY ENDING SET MONTHS LATER AFTER LIAM TURNS UP AT ZAYN’S DOOR. OR. OR IT MIGHT ACTUALLY BE A FLASHBACK FROM BEFOREHAND. WHEN THINGS WEREN’T SO FUCKED UP AND ZAYN HADN’T LEARNT TO HATE SO MUCH. YEP. THOUGHT YOU’D ENJOY THAT NICE KICK IN THE PANTS AT THE END.
> 
> that pretty much applies to the rest of you too. also, since writing this the payzer split has obviously happened, and i actually had forgotten what i'd written for cat til i reread it today, and i may or may not have spent the entire time alternating between sobbing and internally screaming OMG AM I PSYCHIC. but yeah. hope you enjoy, and this tides you over through my hiatus :))


End file.
